Insurance

Insurance is among the most highly regulated industries, and the challenges insurance companies face continue to grow. As established practitioners in the insurance bar, the attorneys in our Insurance Practice Group have the know-how and experience to provide a full range of corporate and regulatory legal services.

Our services include:

organization and operation of insurers;

holding company transactions and filings;

rate filings;

representing clients in excess profits disputes;

advising clients on approvals of policy forms;

counseling clients on the purchase and interpretation of D&O and environmental liability policies;

representing clients in bad faith litigation and coverage disputes; and

representing clients in insurance contract and reinsurance disputes.

Our attorneys drafted legislation governing conversion of the life insurance program offered by New York State savings banks into a single, unified life insurance company. We also worked on the conversion plan called for by the legislation to complete the formation of the new company.

Drawing on our attorneys from other disciplines, we're fully qualified to handle all transactional and regulatory aspects of the insurance business. And in the event of a dispute, we regularly represent domestic and foreign insurers in a wide range of civil litigation matters.

a bank issuer of investor notes, as a surety obligee under the Property Guaranty Fund, overturning the denial of coverage by the New York Superintendent of Insurance;

a major mortgage insurer, obtaining the voluntary dismissal of a class action suit alleging fraud in the client's premium accounting practices;

a construction surety company, winning dismissal of federal and state RICO claims in connection with a multi-million dollar public construction project;

a life insurance company, obtaining a jury verdict denying benefits under an insurance policy issued on the life of a foreign national; the jury accepted our Firm's defense that the claimed death of the insured on foreign soil had been staged;

various insurance clients, appearing before the New Jersey Supreme Court on a number of issues, including the constitutionality of the FAIR Act and the interpretation of the Flex Law, Excess Profits Law, Verbal Threshold Law, Deemer Statute for out-of-state motorists, and the Public Advocate fee statute;

15 servicing carriers of the now defunct Joint Underwriting Authority (JUA), serving as lead defense counsel in the successful mediation of an action brought by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, Division of Insurance;

the New Jersey auto insurance industry in its appeal of the Department's adoption of the Territorial Rating Equalization Exchange (TREE), a program that was ultimately abandoned;

various insurance clients, obtaining decisions and verdicts that insured parties had made false statements on applications for life, accident, and health policies, thereby voiding coverage;

various insurance clients, obtaining jury verdicts that insured parties had not met definitions of total disability under accident and health policies;

an excess insurer, establishing in a federal court action involving asbestos liability that an insured utility plant did not state a justifiable claim because of the insured's failure to prove the likelihood that the excess insurer's policies would be reached; and

a primary insurer, recovering in a private arbitration proceeding the full amount claimed as the reinsured portion of a settled claim over multiple defenses of the reinsurers.